Nottingham Forest midfielder lifts lid on transfer frenzy and failed Blackburn move
Nottingham Forest midfielder lifts lid on transfer frenzy and failed Blackburn move
Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O’Brien is having his third loan spell away from the club since joining a little over two years ago
Despite the setbacks that followed, midfielder Lewis O’Brien has no regrets about moving to Nottingham Forest from Huddersfield Town in 2022. This is his second term in Major League Soccer, and he is back loving his football.
O’Brien, along with Town teammate Harry Toffolo, moved to Forest shortly after the Reds had gained promotion back to the Premier League from play-off final opponents Huddersfield, where he was occasionally captain Carlos Corberan. The two were remarkably two of thirty fresh faces that Steve Cooper welcomed to the City Ground during Forest’s inaugural campaign back in the major leagues.
O’Brien found it hard to adjust to being left out of squads, let alone starting XIs, considering the choices available to Cooper after being a regular in a fantastic season with the Terriers the season before and the seasons before that. However, O’Brien realized he wanted to push himself when a Premier League team called him.
Premier League football has an irresistible attraction. “Every young person aspires to compete against the world’s best players and play in the top league,” O’Brien said to Mirror Football. “It was pretty easy for me to say yes when they did approach me with the interest since I thought I had confidence in myself and thought I could perform at that level.
“It didn’t work out the way I had hoped, but maybe there will be another opportunity to attempt and play in the league in the future. You continue to have faith in your own abilities and personal attributes, as well as the reasons behind your signing. There are also explanations for the signing of other players.
“Most Premier League teams that have just emerged from the Championship experience it. To try to stay in the Premier League, you have to invest the money. That was all Forest accomplished, and regrettably, I either didn’t perform to their standards or wasn’t the player they had in mind when they signed me.
Steve Cooper found himself in a difficult predicament due to the large number of players. There were maybe five to ten of us left out of squads at any given moment at the time. He found it difficult to talk to certain individuals. With my background, I won’t say anything negative about anyone. Football is a messy sport, so I’m simply going to brush that one under the rug and carry on.
O’Brien was scheduled to sign a loan deal with Blackburn Rovers in the winter window of 2023, with Forest hoping to pursue a permanent agreement later on. O’Brien made 17 appearances for Forest in the first half of the season, but just six of those were Premier League starts. That Due to a late filing of papers, the EFL did not approve the deal, and O’Brien moved on to D.C. United a few months later.
“It was extremely difficult, perhaps one of the most trying times in my life,” he continued. At the time, Blackburn was attempting to improve and were third or fourth in the league, so I kind of believed I was going to start playing regular games and maybe push for higher play-offs and maybe go up.
“I was informed that everything was fine, but deadline day is unavoidably a deadline day. I was relieved that everything had been completed and signed. When I arrived at the training area, I was informed that one piece of paper had not been processed, but I had assumed everything was done. From then on, everything happened.
O’Brien was stationed at He spent his injury-plagued season of 21 appearances with Middlesbrough before going on loan with a buyout option to LA FC this summer.
